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Brother
BROTHER Final warning that this story contains spoilers for "Savants". Read or not at your discretion! :P “How is she?” That was the question that had plagued Jacen’s thoughts for hours. Since getting the call, when Dante had remained inexplicably light-tipped about what exactly the problem was. He had, of course, asked the other man to clarify, but all Dante had said was that he ought to return as soon as possible, because Gaia was hurt. Rose had said that it was fine, and that he could head back earlier than they had scheduled, because this was obviously important. He remembered asking her whether or not she and Max would like to come as well. Wouldn’t they like to check on their teammate as well? A guilty look had spread across her face then, as she had explained that someone technically needed to finish their job. Which had, of course, led to the question of why him? Why was he allowed to go back, but not her, or Maddox? To that, she had said something quite strange. “If anyone, it has to be you.” He hadn’t understood then, and he didn’t understand now, as he stood in front of a hospital orderly who was leaning away from him, uneasiness clear on his face. Jacen wasn’t used to people cowering from him. He wasn’t particularly tall, or strong, after all. “Gaia Eluciss.” He repeated. “How is she?” The orderly balked, nervously looking over his shoulder. Why, Jacen wasn’t entirely sure, but instead of answering the question, the orderly instead backed off. Vector was striding towards him, face blank. “Vector!” The call had come out of his mouth louder than he would have liked. Under normal circumstances, he would have been self-conscious. But… not today. Not today. “How is she?” There was one moment – one utterly terrifying moment – where Vector wouldn’t meet his eyes. When he lifted his head, Jacen could see the pain in his own. “Not good.” He confessed, and Jacen’s heart may well have stopped then and there. Not good. What did that mean? Did he want to know? What would become of her? What would become of the girl who had been so incessantly annoying, and stupid, and loud, and who had ended up becoming his best friend anyway? “How is she?” He repeated again. Like a broken record. Vector remained quiet for a moment longer before saying his piece. “Her, uh… her right foot was kind of hurt.” He said, which sounded anticlimactic, but Jacen waited anxiously. He didn’t want there to be any more, but he figured that there was. “Badly burnt. It’s going to have to go through surgery.” He paused. Definitely hesitation. Something was wrong. Something was worse. “And… her left leg.” He paused again. “It’s gone. Above the knee.” Gone. He almost sank to the ground there and then, almost unable to imagine it. How would she…? She was – had been – the most lively and energetic person he had known, and how was she supposed to be that now? How as she supposed to be herself now? “I…” Jacen tried again to speak, but suddenly found himself lacking adequate words. “I…” He attempted one more time, before giving up. Shaking his head, he wordlessly walked past Vector, down the corridor, into the bowels of the hospital. “Room twenty-three.” Vector called after him. Anything else he might have wanted to say went unsaid as well. it was strange how little words could mean, sometimes. Room twenty-three looked just the same as any other rooms in the hospital. He wasn’t sure if he preferred that or not. White door, white walls, white lights. The windows were the only contrast – uncloaked, the night sky poked unintrusively through, dimming the scene. It felt peaceful, which was wrong as well. This was Gaia. Peaceful ought to not be associated with her in any capacity, and yet, there she was. Lying on the bed, so still that Jacen experienced another awful moment of ultimate grief, half-convincing himself that she was dead where she lay. Hovering by her side was an orderly, who fixed Jacen with a stern glare as he entered. “I’m afraid visiting hours are over, sir.” He said with a monotone. Most likely not pleased to be delivering the news, but also used enough to it to have hardened himself while doing so. Before Jacen could say anything – “It was my job”, “I only just found out”, “I’m sorry” – Gaia raised her hand from beside her on the bed and waved it casually, in an almost camp sort of gesture. “Come on, can’t we make an exception?” She pleaded, just a hint of teasing in her tone. The orderly turned to her, and even from his angle, Jacen could see her face shift into something more serious. “S’my brother.” The words hit Jacen harder than he would ever, ever, care to admit. He hadn’t heard much about Gaia’s family, beyond heavy hints that she didn’t have one. Perhaps she was just making an excuse. Yes, that had to be it. The orderly raised an eyebrow, but didn’t speak against her request. Instead, he checked his watch, and shrugged. “I can give you a few minutes.” He reasoned, before turning on his heel and meandering out the door, pausing his slow march only to pat Jacen’s shoulder (in what the latter supposed was supposed to be a comforting gesture) before stepping out of the room, quietly closing the door behind him. “‘Sup.” Gaia greeted him unemotively, as if their circumstances were different. She craned her head from where she lay, trying to better focus on him. Upon seeing this, Jacen hastened forwards until he was standing at her bedside. No words came to him. Gaia’s jade eyes, half-closed with pain and fatigue, stopped roving and stared back at his own. She hissed a breath. “I wasn’t kidding, you know.” She abruptly told him. “Or, you know, lying for convenience.” A faint laugh made its way into her speech. “Though I’ll be the first to admit that I’ve done that before.” “About what?” It was all he could do to make conversation, as he sat down on the seat that was conveniently placed near the bed. To ask. “About you being my brother.” Shrugged Gaia – or, at least, it was as good of a shrug as she could manage, given the circumstances. For a moment, all Jacen could manage was an “Oh.”. How else was he supposed to reply? Eventually, he also managed a: “Am I really, though?” Perhaps it was insulting, to question her judgment, but still wasn’t quite… wasn’t quite fathoming the whole thing. “Not biologically, ‘f that’s what you’re wonderin’.” She sighed. Her eyes began to rove again, and it suddenly seemed as though she were more willing to look anywhere than into his eyes. “But I’ve… well… some stuff happened.” Jacen’s eyes roved over the bed, taking in the jarring observation of her being down a limb one more time. Confirming it. Just… making sure that it was real. It still didn’t feel quite real. “I noticed.” He commented, drily. Perhaps it was out of place, but the call-back to their regular dynamic appeared to cheer Gaia up. She began to snicker to herself. “Ain’t that classic, though, Jacen?” She hissed through the soft laughter. “Didn’t even go out last night, and I’m still legless.” Well, at least the ability to quip hadn’t been lost alongside the leg. Jacen thought, privately, that he wouldn’t be able to handle such a drastic personality shift. “I’m guessing…” He paused, wondering if tact would be more suitable for a situation like this. Or maybe hesitance. But, when looking down at who he was talking to, he paused his pause. Gaia, if anyone, was the sort of person who appreciated no-nonsense words, and getting straight to the point instead of being wishy-washy and distant. He took a deep breath. “I’m guessing that the stuff that happened had to do with family. Right?” “Right, right.” Gaia made a slight turning motion, as if she were about to roll over and then thought better of it. “Yeah, it was… something like that.” She paused, as if trying to figure out what she ought to say. This was also a deviation from the norm – at least, it was when compared to Gaia’s normal “speak first, think about what you say later” mentality. Eventually, she spoke again: “My brother is kind of an asshole.” Bizarre, or out of the blue – especially considering the fact that she had never before mentioned a brother? A little. Would Jacen have it any other way? Of course not. “I hope you don’t mean me.” He jested. At this, Gaia actually rose up in the bed to glower at him, pouting. Was that how he looked, whenever he was telling her off for being stupid? Oh, how the tables have turned, he thought. However, instead of saying, anything, she sighed and fell back again. “Okay, rephrase.” She said. “My brother who is related to me by blood is a complete and utter bastard. I hate him, I hate his guts, I tried to choke him to death the last time I saw him-” “Okay.” Jacen interrupted, uneager to hear more. Considering how much snark and sarcasm he was used to from Gaia, it was unnerving to hear the raw and genuine disdain in her voice. In addition to that, he suspected that dredging up the details of what had happened – so soon after it had happened – would probably be unhealthy. “Point taken.” “Wanna kick his ass.” Gaia frowned in conclusion, folding her arms and fuming to herself in the hospital bed. For a half-second, jokes about how that no longer seemed physically possible flashed through Jacen’s mind, but he quickly cast them aside. It was too soon. And jokes really weren’t his thing, anyway. At least, jokes like that weren’t. In any case, he couldn’t actually think of anything else to say, and so remained silent as Gaia stewed in her own anger for a few more moments, pondering recent developments. “Are you sure you want me?” He asked, slowly and cautiously, as though he were approaching a wounded bear. “As a brother?” “I mean, I wouldn’t have said it if I didn’t.” She declared, simply; making him feel stupid, which was just another layer of irony to add to the situation. “Ah. Right.” Muttered Jacen awkwardly. “Well- thanks.” After all, how else was he supposed to reply to something like that? To the admission that he had been accepted into an inconceivably close position? The fact that, animosity or none, his friend had cast aside her flesh and blood in order to make room for him? “I… uh…” He trailed off, and Gaia leant back up, eying him intently. “Spit it out.” She said. And so, he did: “You’d really think I’d make a good brother?” She raised an eyebrow at him – not pointedly, it appeared to be more of a genuine reaction – before sighing and shaking her head. “I mean, my standards are pretty low at the moment.” She admitted. “But, like… I feel like you’re more of a sibling to me than my real one is. And…” She trailed off slightly before speaking again. “And so much has happened, recently, that’s just… so… I haven’t had any control over anything, at all. And it got me thinking about family, because… like… I can’t control that at all, and then I… then I thought, “why not”, you know? So, I figured that if I was going to have a sibling, it might as well be one that I choose instead of… instead of one I’m just lumped with.” She met his eyes. “And this is me choosing you to be family, Jacen, because…” She trailed off, explanation unfinished. Suddenly jolting back to reality, Jacen felt a stinging at the corner of his eye and furiously swiped at it with the back of his hand. Flicking the tear away, he swallowed and waited for a moment before speaking (just to ensure that his voice wouldn’t break midway through his words). ““Because…”?” He prompted. She glowered at him, and it was only now that he could see tears of her own forming as her lips trembled. “Because I care about you, asshole!” She thumped her pillow with her fist, and the action was so contradictory to her words that Jacen couldn’t help but laugh. He dragged his chair closer to the bed, and offered his hand. She clamped her own around it in a vice-like grip, and he winced – though he was careful to not make a noise. “…Can you stay?” She asked, dimly, after a moment of silence had passed. He considered the question for a moment, before beginning to speak. “Well, I mean, it is pretty late.” He mused. “And visiting hours are over. So, I’ll probably kicked out if I stay.” “Does that mean I’ll have to wait ‘till tomorrow?” And her gave him pause, because they were spoken so incredibly softly. It was as if someone had given a voice to a kitten. And though he had already made his mind up already, it only cemented his resolution. “It means that we’re going to have to be sneaky about it.” He corrected, and was just about able to finish his sentence before he was wrapped in a bone-shattering hug. Gaia said nothing, but he could infer everything he needed, and hesitantly patted her back. For a moment, he had no idea what he was doing (because the whole comforting thing was pretty unfamiliar), but he quickly remembered a short beat that he could play. Tap – pause – tap – pause – three quick taps. The rhythm that his mother had once used to soothe him seemed to work for Gaia, as she sank further into the embrace, her arms relaxing as she did so. Which was nice because, all things considered, breathing was as high of a priority as it had ever been. He let the moment continue before pulling away and looking Gaia in the eyes. “Now,” he said to her, “tell me the best places to hide.” Category:Stories Category:Short Stories